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American Football Pads
American Football Pads (Or hockey/lacrosse) are an amazing way to achieve bulk on a character, the photos on this page are of two of my characters, Tiny Tempest - Chieftain of the Stone Ogre Tribe (Vipers) & Spike - The Vale Lrp. Photos Courtesy of - Paul H, Oliver Facey & Guthrie. They are suprisingly easy to make, as a faily untalented craftsperson I made two of these from scratch and acquired the 3rd set from a friend who used to play a half-ogre. To start with all you need to find is a set of cheap pads on Ebay or similar, I paid no more than £30 each for the two base sets of pads I found. There is a sizing chart availiable on many American Football Pad sellers websites. I'd recommend Large or XL for maximum comfort. Tools/Materials * Evostik Contact Adhesive - I'd reccomend Wickes own brand contact adhesive - it's cheaper than the branded pots! * A knife or two that you can throw away afterwards - from the cutlery draw will do! * Alternatively to knifes, you can buy a spreader or make one out of spare card/plastic. * A drill, electric or hand will do. * Sandpaper or a Dremmel * Needle and thread (I used wax cord as it is stronger - but my sewing skills aren't great) * Scrap Leather & Fur (Raid charity shops for jackets/if you see old sofas on the street take the cushions and cut the leatherette off them) You'll want a fair amount of this. * Paint/Latex - for any blank areas/to dirty up the pads. * A Leather Hole Punch & Rivets allow to to extend easily. * Ld45 Plastazote Foam or Furniture Foam - if you want to make the pads even bulkier or create inventive pieces then you will need foam to build up with to cut down the weight. * Chainmail rings/pieces - can be used to accesorise. How to do it To start you will want to sketch out what you are aiming for, then sandpaper down any shiny surfaces so it all sticks together better. I always start by covering the main plates in leather, for the best look mix and match leathers rather than one colour. Put evostik on the pad itself and the back of the material you are going to glue to it. Leave it dry a little for a few minutes until it is tacky, then slap them together and they should be stuck. Rinse and repeat til all plates are covered. Once this is done if you want to reinforce the main pieces, punch/drill holes through and sew/rivet them into place. The next stage is to fill any gaps with fur (fake fur is your friend - cheap and it goes tatty quicker which is the aim!). Again evostik both parts, leave to go tacky and shove together. Another piece of advice i'd give is to slash the existing strings off the front of the pads and add buckles. It makes them far easier to get on and off. After this point all you have left to do is add accessories. Go wild, chains, trophies, dirt or if you're ambitious like me a giant foam spike! Pads are easy to make and if you are a good scavenger suprisngly cheap - a good piece of advice is to do a few at once, to save on costs of evostik and to be able to share your scavenged materials. Any self respecting Uruk/Olog doesn't have much of a fashion sense!